


Remembrance

by mousoumachine03



Category: Keyakizaka46 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, Implied/Referenced Suicide, also special mentions of neru and yone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 14:51:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18345884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mousoumachine03/pseuds/mousoumachine03
Summary: Moriya Akane recalls the happier times she had during the final countdown to a nuclear blast that will put an end to the whole mess at last





	Remembrance

 

 

“Shit!”

Akane cursed under her breath and slumped down, next to the mainframe computer. The pain in her arm – where she was bitten earlier – had gotten worse with its throbbing and itching, and the skin around the bite was also turning flakey and grey. But shortly, not even this terrible pain would matter. Nothing would matter. Because Akane had done the thing she wanted to do.

“Warning: self-destruct sequence initiated! On-site nuclear warhead will detonate in 10 minutes! All personnel are to evacuate to safe bunkers immediately!” a prerecorded message blared out from the computer speakers.

And also because of this. Except that there were no more personnel to evacuate: all of them – researchers, janitors, guards – were either lying around as dead  bodies or shambling in the hallways as mindless zombies. In fact, a dozen of the latter were crowding the entrance of the room Akane was in right now, only separated by the last human alive by a thick steel door. Relieved that she at least got the last 10 minutes of her life to herself, Akane fished out – with her intact arm – from the breast pocket of her worn out military standard-issue jacket, a smartphone whose screen was horribly cracked. She pressed the home button, and the screen – broken as it was – flickered to life. Displayed on the smartphone was the picture of a woman – likely in her late twenties – with long black hair, eyes curved into crescents and a bright smile.

“Ah, that smile of yours… always as bright as the sun.” Akane smiled melancholically, affectionately tracing her thumbs along the smile of the woman in the photo. “I miss you, Yuuka”

 

_Akane kicked off her opponent, quickly picked up his gun and shot him twice in the chest – for safety caution. After she had made sure that he was dead, Akane rummaged through his body to find the key of his truck, where she spotted him loading up his supplies but never quite recognized what he had._

_“Carrots! Fucking carrots of all things!” Akane kicked the wall next to the truck in frustration. “I wasted two bullets for two crates of carrots! What am I supposed to do with them? Oh well, at least the truck seems to still be in working conditions; guess I’ll take it and dump those stupid carrots somewhere else.”_

_Without any further ado, Akane drove the truck and its orange goods to a river bank. She intended to keep a few carrots and throw the rest away, and was in the middle of unloading those ungodly vegetables while ranting incoherently about the impracticality of carrots in an apocalypse when a feminine voice call out to her._

_“Eh? You’re throwing them all away? How wasteful.”_

_“Well, what the fuck do you suggest I do with them, then?” Akane groaned out loud._

_Interrupted, she turned to the person who said that in annoyance and saw a stunning beauty (even though she was stained by dirt and blood) who looked as if she was not a day over twenty, with long black hair tied into a ponytail, wearing rugged flight jacket and jeans. And riding on top of a horse. A real fucking horse._

_This situation was too bizarre for Akane to process, so she just stood there, lost for words._

_“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take all of those carrots. Let’s make a trade.”_

_Snapped out of her trance, Akane scoffed arrogantly: “Do you even have anything worth trading?”_

_“I see that you have a gun with you, so I suppose that you’d need some bullets?” the horse rider dismounted her horse, unpacked her baggage on the horse’s back and presented to Akane two full ammo boxes, much to Akane’s utter surprise. “What do you say?”_

_Akane carefully inspected the offerings; she found ammunitions suitable for her handgun, rifle and shotgun all available. Who could have thought that two full crates of carrots would be this useful? She looked at the other woman, unbelieving._

_“Why are you giving your ammo away? Don’t you need them to fight?”_

_“Ah, I’m not very familiar with guns, you see. I don’t even have guns, so bullets doesn’t mean much to me. But my horse loves carrot, so this is a fair deal. For me and for you.”_

_“Thank you, I guess.”_

_“No problem!” the other woman, having loaded her newly acquired carrots on top of her horse, beamed at Akane as she fed the horse his favorite treat, before mounting him again and bid Akane goodbye._

 

“That was one hella weird first meeting.” Akane, in the presence, commented. “But even back then your smile has always been the same, huh? For several days afterwards I often fantasized about your smile without realizing it.”

 

_Akane winced, limping as she tried her best to run away from rampaging zombies with a sprained ankle. She was dumb enough to venture in a heavily infested area, which previously was a mall, to scavenge for canned food and bottled water. She, however, encountered an unexpected zombie hiding in a Halloween costume aisle and tripped clumsily while getting away from a zombie stuck in chicken suit._

_She also dropped a lot of her loot, too._

_“Just my damn luck. What a day!”_

_She made it to her motorbike and dropped the precious loot into the saddle bags, then inserted her keys and started up the engine… only to find out that it somehow broke down while she was away._

_“Damn it, not you too!” Akane exclaimed in utter frustration, getting her gear out to ready for a battle. She gripped her metal baseball bat tightly, ready to bash open the skull of any zombie that approached. She had to admit though, it was highly likely that she would lose this battle, being not in her top form._

_“Need a ride?” a familiar voice asked, and Akane found herself looking at the stranger that exchanged bullets for carrots from last time. “Hop on.”_

_Having survived the apocalypse for almost two years now, Akane knew that if someone was overly friendly, she had to watch out for sudden backstabs. But with the zombies coming closer like an angry mob, Akane had no choice but to accept the offer of the stranger, who helped her get up the horse. They galloped away_

_“Do you ride a horse all day?” Akane asked._

_“Oh no, only when I’m moving out. Normally I would left Wolfram to himself while tending to my camp.”_

_“Wolfram?”_

_“That’s my horse’s name. He’s the only thing I have left.”_

_“Don't you have companions?”_

_“Oh no, most people I met, well, they tried to steal from me. Nobody wants to trade fairly, they just wants to take my things while keeping theirs.” The horse rider sounded sad and disappointed when she recalled her experience. “You were the first one to accept a trade offer from me. Thank you very much.... err….”_

_“Call me Moriya.”_

_“Thank you very much, Ms. Moriya.”_

_“It’s not a big deal. We last few humans should be sticking together after all. It’s a shame that most people just care about themselves – desperate times truly brings out the worst in people.” Akane sighed, shaking her head. Looking at the woman sitting in front of her, she managed to let out a small smile. “Though, it does brings out someone’s best too.”_

 

“You traded valuable bullets with me on the first time we met, and saved my ass on the second time. There’s no doubt about it Yuuka, you’re a godsend.” Akane shifted her position so that she was now laying on the floor, her arms spread out on both sides, though her good arm quickly raised up to put the phone in front of her; her thumb swiped to another picture, this time a selfie she took with the woman she called Yuuka – with a bright full moon on a clear night sky in the background.

 

_Akane carefully took a peek around the corner, pressing herself against the outer bamboo wall of the house. She was investigating an abandoned countryside house, secluded in a thick bamboo grove, which she considered to be her next camp. So far she hadn’t found anything, or anyone yet. With her trusty pistol in hand, she soundlessly sneaked her way into the backyard._

_This house was much larger than she expected; it even had a barn in the back. It looked like this house was once a farm, considering the rows of ploughed soil that were now sadly overran with wild weeds; though it should not be too much of a hassle for Akane – she had the tools in the saddle bags of the motorbike that she had cautiously hidden in the bushes, and could put in a good few hours of labor to pull out all the grass and make the soil cultivable again. Heck, maybe there could be tools in that barn that were more suitable for farming than her crude self-made shovel._

_“Sorry for intruding.” Akane said to nobody in particular, and pushed open the barn door. The frightened neigh of a horse was not quite the thing she was expecting though, and she found herself facing an all too familiar quadruped animal._

_“Wolfram?” Akane breathed out in shock. “Wait, does it mean that your owner is around too?”_

_“Ara, Miss Moriya, I certainly don’t expect to see you again.” Akane heard the voice that she had grown accustomed to by now from deep within the barn, and there she finally recognized the Carrot Girl, disguised as a pile of hay and armed with a bamboo spear. Akane inched closer, with her gun still in her hands._

_“Oh, you’re here too. I was going to make this place my camp.”_

_“I’m sorry. Miss, but I’ve made this place my camp first.”_

_“Well I’m claiming it now.” Akane confidently announced, her finger already on the trigger. “This is a takeover. I’m ready to fight you for it. But if you comply with my request and leave, I won’t kill you, as thanks to you that I got these bullets after all.”_

_What she wasn’t ready for, however, was a direct kick from Wolfram right in her back. The horse send her flying in the air, and the gun flying right out of her hand before landing in the hand of Carrot Girl, who then pressed that gun against Akane’s forehead._

_“I thought you aren’t familiar with guns?” Akane taunted._

_“Exactly. But even so, I can’t possibly miss at point blank range, can I?”_

_“Damn! To think a fucking horse can put me to shame like this.” Akane cursed. This might be really the end for her, and it was not how she intended to die. Well, to be fair, she didn’t intend to die at all._

_“You see, Wolfram is like a dear friend to me. He will not hesitate to act if he sees me in danger. Horses are gentle animals, but they become absolutely dangerous when they are enraged. I suggest that you do not do things that may endanger yourself, Miss Moriya.”_

_To Akane’s utter surprise, the girl lowered the gun and offered her a hand instead._

_“There is no need for us to fight, this house is large enough for the both of us, after all. It is better if we group up and camp here. What do you say?”_

_“Aren’t you afraid of me betraying you?” Akane asked, still suspicious of the all too friendly Yuuka._

_“That’s possible. But we have met by chance three times so far, so I believe it is fate that wants us to be together.”_

_“That sounds sappy. But I’ll take it.” Akane accepted the girl’s outstretched hand - she was not in a mood to fight; and Carrot Girl helped her stand up. “Better than being shot dead after being kicked by a horse, am I right?”_

_The other woman only smiled at that. Akane found that smile extremely warm and reassuring._

 

The Carrot Girl introduced herself as Sugai Yuuka. After the three fateful encounters, Yuuka and Akane forged a steadfast alliance, and they built up their own abode in that abandoned farmhouse. Surprisingly, Yuuka somehow had an extensive knowledge of agriculture, managing to set up their own small garden of various vegetables. Meanwhile Akane, much more suited for combat than production of foods, designed and installed a simple yet deadly effective defensive trap systems: pitfalls with sharpened bamboo shafts, nets, bear traps… which would either deter intruders or catch small animals to satisfy their need for meat. Occasionally, Akane would venture out to the nearby river to fish, and would bring back a dozen. Thanks to its remote location, the farm was mostly safe from both zombies and raiders. The selfie picture Akane took with Yuuka was taken on the rooftop of that farmhouse one nice summer night, after they were both slightly tipsy from the whisky stock Yuuka somehow miraculously kept. The only resources they lack were ammunitions for firearms and fuel for the generator and vehicles. They first looted the nearby houses, but at one point, even the local resources for those ran out; and the duo decided to go to the nearest town to fill up.

 

_Yuuka panted heavily, hands gripping the metal baseball bat tightly as two zombies closed in on her. She split up with Akane earlier so that they could cover more ground, but after no more than 45 minutes she ran into problems - which took the form of a dozen zombies. She managed to lose track of most of them, but two persistent ones managed to corner her in an abandoned police station. Yuuka eyed the exit, carefully calculating her chances of escaping unscathed. Unlike Akane, she was not very keen on fighting or violence, having always had her horse to rely on to get out of ugly situations._

_One of the zombie got close, but its advance was stopped by a decisive swing of the bat; however, taking the chance of Yuuka being distracted by the first zombie, the second one also went on offensive. And it almost got her too, if it hadn’t been blasted to bit by shotgun shells._

_“Oh, here you are.” Akane said, concerned by the state Yuuka was in. “I made it just in time, huh.”_

_“Thanks, Akane.” replied Yuuka. By now they have grown comfortable together enough to the point of addressing each other by the first name. “I’m glad you came.”_

_“You’re not hurt, right?” Akane asked, immediately checking her partner for any visible injuries. “You’re not bitten, right?”_

_“No, I’m fine.” Yuuka surrendered herself to Akane, who only let go after she made sure that Yuuka was, indeed, fine._

_“Thank goodness,” Akane sighed in relief. “I would not be able to live with myself if anything happens to you.”_

_“Aw, I appreciate the sentiment.” Yuuka teased “But you’re a strong fighter and capable survivor. You did fine before me. You will do fine after me.”_

_“That’s not what I mean! You’re the most important person to me in the world right now!” Akane blurted out. “I love you, Yuuka!”_

_Yuuka’s shocked face made Akane realized what had she done. In that exact moment, everything seemed to stop, even time itself.  Akane wanted to slap herself for her big mouth, but the damage had been done; so all she could do was mentally kicking herself over. It was very likely, Akane feared, that her unintended confession would destroy the relationship they had been building so far._

_It was true, that nearly a year after their steadfast alliance began, that Akane began to fall in love with her partner. She was not sure how or when did that happened - perhaps being into this mess for far too long had made her more vulnerable to loneliness than normal, or it could be the fact that Yuuka had such a great impact on her - but either way, it was killing Akane inside to keep it a secret. The fact that they didn’t know much about each other’s life before the outbreak also added to her problem. For all that she knew, Yuuka could be married or in a similar relationship with someone still out there; or she could be simply not into Akane (or girls) at all. And now that Akane had let slip her honest feeling about Yuuka, she could not help but feel afraid that she had ruined the relationship between them. ‘What will become after us now?’ Akane thought._

_Yuuka’s eyes curved into crescents as she beamed at Akane._

_“Eh, I’m glad. Never had anyone told me that they love me before. I mean… besides my parents. They were… afraid of me… you see.”_

_“But why? Were you some sort of devil incarnate? Eh? But you’re such a gentle person.”_

_“Well, it would be more accurate to say that people were afraid of my family than they were afraid of myself. My parents were very wealthy; and while they were kind people, they were also very strict.” Yuuka slumped down and said. “They hold very high standard for me, my sister and my friends alike. So gradually my friend started to keep their distance.”_

_“Oh…”_

_Yuuka’s voice cracked as if she was going to cry, so naturally Akane sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her almost crying partner._

_“There, there…” Akane patted Yuuka’s head, guiding her so that Yuuka rested her head on Akane’s shoulder. “You have me now.”_

_“Thank you, Akane.” Yuuka murmured. She raised her head up and looked Akane in the eyes. In the heat of the moment, Akane leaned in and captured Yuuka’s lips in a passionate kiss._

 

Akane touched her lips, as if searching for any ghost of that one kiss. Surely, they kissed many times afterwards, but the first kiss was always different, always special. It had the sweet taste of love, as well as the bitterness of loneliness and loss. The feeling they put in that kiss was one of a kind, and it hurt Akane so much that the feeling was going to be lost, forever. A tear silently escaped from her eye, rolling down her cheek as she swiped to the next picture on her phone. It was the picture of Yuuka, basked in the early morning light, dreamily staring out of the window of the attic where they slept at night. She propped an arm under her chin, black hair cascading down her bare back like a silky waterfall. It was perhaps Akane’s favorite picture of Yuuka that she kept on this phone.

 

_Yuuka and Akane lay on their mattress, completely spent from the intense lovemaking they did earlier. However, they also felt greatly relaxed and comfortable in each other’s arms - which was somewhat of a luxury in such a hectic time. The survivor in her would chew her out for letting her guard down like this, but Akane could not care less - she had had enough, for the last five years, of not getting enough sleep and always be on guard. Maybe, if she had not met Yuuka, she would have still been on the run, never catching a rest for fear of being caught either by a zombie or a nefarious fellow survivor. So the best thing to do right now would be to enjoy the relatively short period of tranquility that they had. Akane idly pushed back a stray lock of hair from Yuuka’s sweaty face to get a better look of her partner. Yuuka smiled, her eyes sparkled as if they reflected the stars on the night sky._

_“I love you Akane.” Yuuka said, nuzzling her face in the crook of Akane’s neck. “I wish we can stay like this forever.”_

_“Me too. After the end of this mess, it would be nice if we can just stay here and start our own lives over. It’s a pity that we don’t really know what would happen after this.”_

_“Whatever happens, I want to be with you.”_

_An idea sparked in Akane’s mind; she shot up and reached for her jacket in front of Yuuka’s bewildered and slightly worried eyes. After a good minute of rummaging through her pockets, Akane triumphantly pulled out a small item that she grasped tightly in her palm._

_“Akane? What’s wrong?” Yuuka asked, concerned about her partner’s strange behavior._

_“I know this is completely sappy and probably does not mean much in this broken world, but,” Akane said, a little bit too fast due to excitement, “will you marry me, Yuuka?”_

_She stretched her hand out; lying in Akane’s open palm is a small, delicate silver ring._

_Throughout the length of their relationship, Yuuka had always been the one to make the first move: she was the one who initiated the trade, saved her life, and suggested that they cooperate. Akane had always been the one who followed; and she wanted, for once, to make the first move, to return all Yuuka’s kindness and love._

_Yuuka gasped from the surprise proposal. Akane found her to be extremely cute when she was surprised, by a positive thing of course._

_“When did you even have time to get a ring?”_

_“Remember the last town visit we had? I happened to pass by a pawn shop, and saw it while searching for spare bullets. I thought that it looked pretty so I went ahead and snatched it.” Akane explained. “It’s not like anyone’s going to complain, right? So what do you say?”_

_“Yes, Akane, I will marry you.”_

 

For a solid two month, their life was once again full of happiness. The zombies and raiders still visited once or twice a week, but nothing serious happened. There was something about being ‘married’ that lifted their mood significantly. Akane thought that, maybe, their life was going under control and they would finally find a happy ending.

Unfortunately, that was not the way things turned out.

Apparently, despite their best effort of keeping their base a secret, somehow, words still got out to the remaining survivors of the ‘peaceful farmstead run by two beautiful women’. Raiders began to form gangs, with the aim of taking over their farm and capture Yuuka and Akane for whatever no-good shenanigans they had. Yuuka tried to keep them away with gifts of fresh vegetables, but the raiders irked Akane to no end. She killed a few raiders that got too close to her wife, but that did not deter the more shameless raiders. Gradually, the raiders’ requests got more and more unreasonable, to the point where even Yuuka tolerated them any longer. She demanded that if the raiders just keep on taking their goods and not returning any favor, she would have to turn them away.

That, of course, didn’t turn out well. Bitter, resentful raiders - salty about their loss of a free food source - declared war on Yuuka and Akane. At first they come only in small groups of four or five, nothing that Akane’s traps and marksmanship could not take care of. Even Yuuka killed one or two in every defense attempt. But the constant raiding made their life much, much more difficult, especially now that they have to spend more time on devising defensive measures, crafting more traps and, of course, repairing the damaged parts of their base after every fight, leaving very little time for production and each other. Not to mention that they had to get back to the constant vigilant routine, making both of them very much on edge.

But, as their luck would not have it, disaster struck anyway.

 

_The blazing fire, like a vicious beast, engulfed the whole house. In the inferno, Akane struggled as a man, twice as big as she was, kept swinging a hatchet at her. She outmaneuvered him, however, and stabbed him, right in the throat, with a bayonet she looted from her previous kill. The usual raiding gangs had upgraded itself to a raiding party of at least 20 participants, and things escalated when someone among them set their house on fire with a molotov. The weather was also against them as the wind only helped blowing the flame out of control; and as they had to fend of the oncoming assault, they did not have the time to put out the fire._

_“Yuuka!” Akane called out. “Where are you?”_

_There was no answer, so she had to dodge a falling, burning wooden beam. Barely making it out of the quickly collapsing house, she saw her wife, in the garden, taking on two enemies at once while armed with only a shovel. Yuuka took down one of them, but was tackled by the other - who pinned her on the ground and had his gun trained on her head._

_“Yuuka!” Akane shouted. “Leave her alone you bastard!”_

_Akane immediately ran for it, but before she made it there, two muscular, hoofed legs kicked the man off Yuuka. Wolfram, seeing that his mistress was in serious danger, had broken out of the barn and trotted to where Yuuka was on the ground, nuzzling her concernedly._

_“You stupid animal! Die already.” The man grunted and pointed his gun at the horse instead. The gun barked, and in front of a horrified Yuuka, her best friend dropped to the ground, blood gushing out from a gaping bullet hole on his chest._

_“Wolfram! Wolfram!” the distraught rider cried. Akane could not believe in what she saw, but the the usually gentle Yuuka seemed to have entered a frenzied state. With a hateful look in her eyes, Yuuka leaped at the man - shocked by the sudden transformation of the woman he was trying to kill - and bashed him in the head. He tried to fight back, but with her newfound strength and rage, Yuuka knocked his gun away and repeatedly struck him as if he was a watermelon on a summer beach._

_“How dare you!” She screamed, with tears streaming down her face. “I will kill you like you killed Wolfram. No, I will make you suffer, you monster.”_

_“Yuuka!” Akane called. “Let’s retreat. We’re outnumbered.” But Yuuka seemed to not have heard her, as she continued venting out her extreme anger on the definitely dead raider. Shaking her head, Akane restrained the manic woman in front of her and tried to drag her away. “Yuuka, come to your senses. He’s dead already, and so will we if we don’t get out of here fast.”_

_Somehow, Akane’s words broke through to Yuuka; she let go of the shovel and looked at Akane, a trace of pain and loss evident in her tear-filled eyes. But she resisted no longer as Akane led her away from the scene. They ran into the night, while their place of residence full of blissful memories burned to the ground and was left behind._

_They returned in the next morning, after the fire had completely died. Yuuka still held on a tiny piece of hope that what transpired the previous night was not the truth; but it was, cemented in their sense of reality in the form of a dead Wolfram. Yuuka broke down in tears at the sight of her best friend that had helped her so much in the apocalypse up until the point of his death; Akane could only console her with a tight embrace as Yuuka sobbed uncontrollably in her arms, while a storm brewed inside of her. Even though she was not very fond of Wolfram for the time he kicked her in the back, Akane had grown to appreciate the animal through the course of things that took place, and the loss of him was quite a punch in the guts. Not only because she held positive opinion of him now, but also because of how traumatized Yuuka was due to his departure. If anything, Akane hated seeing Yuuka like this, dishevelled and brokenhearted - because she could not do anything to make the pain go away. Partly, she even felt responsible for what happened to Wolfram - if only she had gotten their earlier, and she would have finished of the raider herself and Wolfram would have been still alive, which meant Yuuka would still be happy. But she could not go back in time, only could bitterly wonder about what could have been done._

_After Yuuka had calmed down, they dug a grave and buried the dead horse, using what was left of their old tools that survived the fire. It took half a day’s work, but they managed to get it done. Somehow, Akane found a stray carrot, which must have found its way into her pocket - perhaps during that one time where she was thrown into a vegetable crate during the scuffle last night. She left it on Wolfram’s eternal resting place, as her last tribute to him._

_Afterwards, they set off on their journey, never looking back._

 

After the Wolfram incident, Yuuka fell into a lapse of depression and stress. She began drinking more alcohol. Frequently she would have nightmares about that night, waking up drenched in cold sweat. Akane could not ease her pain in anyway other than constantly reassuring that she would always be by Yuuka’s side; and the dire situation put a great strain on their relationship, even though they still loved each other. Them being on the move continually also did not help, as they had to revert back to the old routine of vigilance, which was made much worse by that incident. Even a slight movement of the wind or a tiny sound got on their nerves, and Akane worried that they would soon breakdown due to too much stress. She frequently told Yuuka and herself that things would get better, for reassurance.

 

_After a few months of wandering, they managed to get to the seaside. For the first time in many years for the both of them, this was the first time they saw the sea. This area was devoid of anyone, alive or dead/undead. ‘Maybe people just don’t have time to visit a beach during the apocalypse.’ Akane thought, almost jokingly._

_“Shall we run alongside the beach?” Akane asked, out of nowhere. They talked before about going to the beach - during one of their daydream sessions of what to do after the apocalypse was over - and agreed that this was one of the things they would do at the beach. Even though, the apocalypse was not over, still, there might be no other chances of being on the seashore ever again for the foreseeable future, so Akane felt like she might as well take the chance._

_“Sure.” Yuuka nodded, and smiled - the first smile for quite a while. Akane looked at her and also smiled; and before long, both of them had taken off their shoes, approached the water line, and began frolicking without a care in the world. It was refreshing - a break in the routine was very much what they both needed. Yuuka jumped in Akane’s arms, knocking her off balance a bit, and both of them fall in the water. Being wet and cold, though, didn’t even put a damper on their rarely seen playful mood, and they kissed again and again as the sun was going down._

_‘Maybe things will go our way again.’ Akane thought._

_Except it didn’t._

_A week after their playful afternoon at the beach, Yuuka was bitten._

_It happened too fast, during one of their expenditures. Yuuka and Akane sneaked into the remnants of a city somewhere in Kagoshima prefecture, the city nameplate was perhaps lost during the riots. They decided to scout an abandoned shopping mall, hoping to find some new clothes to replace the rags they had been wearing, stock up on bandages and perhaps medicine. Instead they found a colony of zombies and only escaped after a nasty fight. In the spur of the moment, a zombie managed to land a bite on Yuuka’s calf, and even though she quickly broke free, it was still too late._

_Yuuka knew her fate was unavoidable, and after they had retreated to a hilltop outside the city, she begged Akane to kill her. A request that of course, Akane resisted._

_“ You know that I can’t, Yuuka, I can’t.” Akane cried, shaking furiously; while Yuuka looked down to the ground._

_“But I will hurt you, you know.” Yuuka said sorrowfully. “I don’t want to hurt you, but once I’m turned, I won’t be able to control myself.”_

_“Can we just cut off the infected part instead?”_

_“Which is my whole body. The incubation period can last at most a week, but it took the virus a few hour to completely spread throughout the whole system…” Yuuka shook her head. “There is no known cure, and even if there is, how do we find it in seven days?”_

_“We have to try, Yuuka.” Akane proclaimed._

_“We don’t even know how!” Yuuka retorted. “You’re being unreasonable here.”_

_“No, the unreasonable one is you! You’re asking me to kill my most precious person left in the world! How would you feel like if someone makes you kill me? Or Wolf…”_

_Akane barely stopped herself from saying the word, but Yuuka looked as if Akane just slapped her across the face._

_“I’m sorry, Yuuka, I didn't mean it…” Akane frantically apologized._

_“It’s okay, I understand now…” Yuuka sighed. “It’s my fault that I got bitten after all.”_

_“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” Akane began to cry. She hadn’t in a long, long time, but this time it was too much for her to handle. Her best friend and wife was slipping away right in front of her; and the worst thing was there was no way they could get out of this. Akane felt like kicking herself yet again for not being able to protect Yuuka; but she was not ready to kill her either, not even as an act of mercy._

_They cried together, bitter about their worst of luck. Akane still refused to kill Yuuka, she couldn’t bring herself to imagining it. She was as scared as Yuuka was, regarding the future._

_“Akane,” Yuuka pled tearfully. “I want to die as a human. Please… help me die as a human.”_

_At the end of day five, finally Akane was swayed by Yuuka’s persistent persuasion. Despite the nonstop streams of tears, she reluctantly accepted Yuuka’s request. By now, Yuuka’s condition had gotten much worse - she was much paler and it got more difficult for her to breathe, meanwhile on some part of her body, the skin was flaking off; and Akane had to accept that it was best for them if she put Yuuka out of her misery._

_She loaded a single bullet into her revolver, aimed at Yuuka’s head and pulled the trigger._

_“I’m sorry, Yuuka.”_

_But Sugai Yuuka could no longer hear that apology. She left the world, with one last smile on her face._

_Akane, overwhelmed with grief, buried her former lover under a large zelkova tree. She took Yuuka's ring and wore it on a string dangling from her neck as a memento._

 

Akane cried, in remembrance of the woman she loved and lost. The last image of Yuuka was taken at the beach, where they camped for a night. In the photo, Akane was holding up the phone, and Yuuka was pressing a kiss on her wife’s cheek. It was such a good time, when they were blissfully unaware of the cruel fate that would befall them.

“I’m sorry, Yuuka. It’s all my fault.” She lamented.

 

_After Yuuka died by her hand, Akane gave up on trying to connect with other people, mourning the short little happiness she had that died along with Yuuka. She went on exploring the rest of the country, forever avoiding the cities because of what happened. She no longer had an idea of where to go, just kept on walking to wherever her feet could carry her. One day, she ended up in what used to be a remote laboratory complex. Judging from the strewn about documents and blood on the wall, something messy must have happened here. Gun in her hands, Akane advanced further into the lab complex, though she was not sure what exactly was she looking for either._

_She encountered a few zombies on the way, but she outran them anyway. Every room contained lots and lots of papers, but only one certain document piqued her interest the most. It was a letter sent from a Doctor Nagahama to a Mr. Takahiro, dated about three years ago._

_[To Mr. Takahiro,_

_The project has yielded positive results. Dr. Yonetani and I have successfully extracted the cure for what is known as the zombie virus. When administered, the cure can completely heal a bitten patient and prevent later transformation. It can even revert a zombified patient, with the success rate of 90%…]_

_Too shocked, Akane dropped the letter as she clutched her mouth in horror. The harrowing truth disabled her senses, her head was spinning from the revelation - there was a cure after all, but she and Yuuka were unfortunate. She thought of how Yuuka could have been cured if they stumbled upon this lab earlier, or if she hadn’t pulled the trigger that fateful day a year and a half ago._

_Akane dropped to her knees, crying uncontrollably, calling Yuuka’s name over and over. Everything that she did could not be undone. She felt as if all of her reasons for surviving were meaningless, as if some power high above just wanted her to live just so she could experience the worst. She wanted to end it all, so that she would not feel so much suffering anymore._

_In fact, she might as well do just that. But a single shot from a pistol was not enough. She hated all the zombies so much for what happened to her, and to Yuuka._

_The next item of interest to her was a manual on how to initiate the site built-in self-destruction. She just had to get to the right place. And she did, even if the now zombified Dr. Nagahama - as dictated by her nameplate - did bite her in the arm while she was in a rush. Even if the zombies had now caught up to her, just waiting outside of the room she was in._

_A quick check of the mainframe computer in the central control room showed that it still worked, thanks to the giant solar panels that ran regardless of whether or not humans were around to run them. Following the manual, Akane triggered the shutdown protocol - which somehow involved detonating a nuclear warhead. As an amusing thought, Akane wondered what the heck did they do in here that would require such an extreme clean-up._

_“Shit!”_

_Akane cursed under her breath and slumped down, next to the mainframe computer. The pain in her arm – where she was bitten earlier – had gotten worse with its throbbing and itching, and the skin around the bite was also turning flakey and grey. But shortly, not even this terrible pain would matter. Nothing would matter. Because Akane had done the thing she wanted to do._

 

“5 seconds until nuclear warhead detonation!” The robotic voice of the computer echoed throughout the site. The zombies, having no more an understanding of speech, still tried unsuccessfully to claw their way in despite the imminent nuclear blast. Even through a small window pane in the door, Akane still saw clearly their desire to break inside, wrap their filthy undead hands on her and consume her whole in an attempt to ease their insatiable, eternal hunger. Not that she would allow them that pleasure though. Not after all the horror she had been through.

She closed her eyes and counted.

4.

3.

2.

1.

 


End file.
